


This Welcome Wagon Doubles As a Hearse

by roxashasboxers



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s04e01 Welcome to Korea, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 09:33:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxashasboxers/pseuds/roxashasboxers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>BJ isn't sure he can fill the space Trapper has left behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Welcome Wagon Doubles As a Hearse

**Author's Note:**

> So, I recently got into MASH. And fandoms in general have sort of ruined me, so I apparently can't enjoy things without seeing the angsty or slashy side, though really, this isn't very slashy. It could even be gen. Anyway, this was written in about ten minutes, so it's not long or anything.
> 
> Spoilers for S4E1, "Welcome to Korea".

BJ likes to think he'd go through Hell for his family, but after being there today, he's not so sure. He wonders what that says about him, and about Pierce, and about the mysterious Trapper John he's replacing. He wonders if he's even worthy of taking that spot, if he ever could be or even wants to try.

BJ knows that he should be concerned by the fact that that this man beside him is more upset about not getting to say goodbye to his friend than any part of their horrid, carnage-filled trip back from the airport. He knows that there's no good reason for the order of Pierce's priorities, that either the shelling and the minefields and the gore are all so commonplace they don't even matter anymore or Korea has taken his sanity away from him. He knows he should be wondering what's wrong with this man, why he isn't shaking and crying and screaming about death and war and all the things BJ is too shocked to shout himself, but all he wants to know is what made Trapper John so special that Pierce risked his own life just to say goodbye to the man.

They're rip-roaring drunk by the time they stumble back to the Swamp, and despite the absolute disaster the day has been, they're both giggling like children and BJ thinks maybe he won't die over here, maybe he can just ride the war out with Hawkeye, putting bodies back together and making the best of a shitty situation. Then Pierce says goodnight to him, and the name is slurred but BJ knows he's just been mistaken for Trapper. All the good feelings he's managed to accumulate rush out with his next breath and he's suddenly back to being far too sober and acutely aware of his situation. He's in a warzone surrounded by strangers and the man he'd hoped to call a friend is casting him for a mold he's not big enough to fill.

In the next bed over, Hawkeye is dead to the world.

BJ feels about the same.


End file.
